Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor urged the U.S. Supreme Court to allow cameras
in its courtroom, saying Americans “want to see what is happening in our courtrooms.”

Participating on a panel Friday hosted by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press at
the National Press Club, O’Connor said, “This is important because the public cares. The public
wants to see cameras.”

All 50 state Supreme Courts allow TV cameras, with some restrictions, but the nation’s highest
court has banned all live audio and video recording devices during oral arguments and opinion
announcements. Some fear that a live broadcast could allow for arguments to be taken out of
context, and would encourage justices and lawyers to grandstand for the cameras.

But O’Connor said “grandstanding is non-existent” in the Ohio Supreme Court, which has televised
its oral arguments for 10 years.

O’Connor also shot down as “a somewhat elitist view” that too much unfiltered information could
confuse Americans, saying, “Without cameras, the United States Supreme Court is missing out on a
huge opportunity to foster greater public understanding of our judicial branch.”

In addition to O’Connor, the panel included Kenneth Starr, a former solicitor general of the
United States and the independent prosecutor who investigated the Monica Lewinsky affair with
former President Bill Clinton; and Neal Katyal, former acting U.S. solicitor general under
President Barack Obama.

Katyal, while favoring TV cameras in the U.S. Supreme Court, was reluctant for outsiders to
impose solutions on a court that was “exceptional” and a “temple of truth.” That prompted O’Connor
to say, “Every court of law in this country is an exceptional experience for our citizens.”

Starr, now the president of Baylor University in Texas, backed O’Connor, joking that “with all
due respect, (the Supreme Court justices) are not the Oracle of Delphi telling us what the gods
mean.” Starr also advised justices who were afraid of becoming prominent public figures to “grow an
extra layer of skin.”

O’Connor said she is opposed to Congress ordering the Supreme Court to install cameras.

“I am not advocating that,” she said. “There has to be mutual respect between these two equal
branches of government.”